Work Motivation For An Organization Management Essay

Why we need to do that. is one of the questions that people always ask. People work every day because of the motivation. According to Luthans, motivation is the process that energizes, arouses, directs and maintains behavior and performance. Motivation can stimulate people to take actions and to achieve a desired job. In order to improve the work motivation, some organizations will provide some financial rewards such as bonuses for their staff. Akintoye (2000) asserts that the most important motivational strategy is money. In fact, our society keeps changing. Thus, people do not focus on money gradually. Hitt, Esser and Marriott (1992) state that the motivation could be divided into two types: Extrinsic and intrinsic. Money and recognition which are called extrinsic reward are one of the motivators. The quality of life such as work-life balance, the sense of belonging and job satisfaction are other examples of the motivators which are called intrinsic rewards. Nowadays, more people care about intrinsic motivation. Also, there are some theories and developments such as self-efficacy theory and job design related to work motivation showing increasing work motivation for an organization is not only through financial rewards.

Money plays a significant role in our society. People need to work because of money. If people do not have the money, their primitive needs are not fully satisfied. Based on the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the biological needs are at the bottom. When workers’ basic needs are unsatisfied, they cannot provide high job performance. Financial rewards and benefits can provide the satisfaction for workers and motivate them to work hard especially for working poor, working class and junior staff. Financial rewards and benefits include base pay, cash bonuses, commission and holidays which are a tangible form of recognitions. Ebru (1995) pointed out that low salaries and lack of social security will lower workers’ work motivation. Hence, many organizations increase work motivation by providing financial rewards to workers. To cite an example, Tesco, an important part of the biggest retailer in UK, provides a great rewards package for their staff. The rewards package includes a lot of benefits such as a very competitive salary, giving free shares, 25 days’ holiday and pension scheme. In 2009, about 52,000 Tesco's staff are to apportion in a £126m profits. Tesco also provides bonus, travel allowance, private medical insurance and private health care for the senior staff. Undoubtedly, in order to get a win-win situation, Tesco gains a better understanding of the significance of financial rewards for every worker and make good use of financial rewards to motivate the workers. The win-win situation is about benefiting the company’s profit and satisfying the workers’ needs.”The establishment of incentive wages systems as a means of stimulating workers to higher performance, commitment, and eventually satisfaction.” is mentioned by Taylor. Obviously, Tesco is successful when it motivates its staff through financial rewards.

Although using the financial rewards as motivators is influential, there are some limitations. It is only one of the ways to stimulate workers but not the best way. Firstly, the efficiency of using financial rewards is transient. The companies cannot non-stop increase the workers’ salaries because of the financial limitation. For a particular point called salary cap, the growth of the salaries is stopped. At that moment, the workers start becoming lazy. Only if the workers have promotion, can the salaries be increased. Then, they have motivation to work hard again. Unfortunately, the opportunities for promotion are finite. In other words, in the long-term, using financial rewards to increase work motivation is not work. Secondly, people were mainly focus on financial gain or loss in the past. Nowadays, the majority of people focus on job satisfaction, job environment and relationship when they work. In some cases, even if the workers’ salary is not increased, they only have the higher title or promotion. They feel fine or meaningful and then have motivation to work harder. It is called empowerment. Therefore, financial factors may not affect their work motivation.

Non-financial rewards specifically motivate the senior staff and supervisors to get high job performance which is more effective than financial rewards since almost senior workers’ basic needs are satisfied. Therefore, they will pursuit a higher level of goals or needs, for instance, high social status, good reputation, self-esteem and self-actualization. Maslow argued that higher order self-actualization needs which are the desire for personal fulfillment at the top. They will develop their potential and capabilities. In Asian, for example, Li Ka-shing who is the chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) is the richest person with a predictable wealth of US $25.5 billion in 2012. His primitive needs are totally satisfied. Therefore, he desires higher level of goals or needs. He satisfies his self-actualization needs by doing some charities. He donated one-third of his fortune (about US$10 billion) to charity and philanthropic projects throughout the world in 2006. In the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, US$3.85 million aid was donated by him. In the 2011 Japan earthquake, he provided about US$1 million financial support to the victims. In conclusion, for the sake of high level of satisfaction as gaining a good reputation, he fully shows his capabilities to everyone. A lot of people show appreciations for him. The more recognition he has, the more motivation he gets. So he continues to do charities nowadays.

Feedback which is another example of non-financial rewards increases work motivation for an organization successfully. According to the reinforcement theory, there are four types of reinforcement: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment and extinction. Regular positive feedback is essential for strengthening workers’ morale. Everyone likes admiration. Positive and immediate feedback is an example of positive reinforcement. When workers do well, they will have positive feedback and admiration, for instance, you did a good job. They will be proud of their work. And then they have a motivation to keep doing something well. In addition, feedback can tell workers what they should do and how they get the enhancement. Hence, they can reduce the possibilities of doing something wrong. No one wants to be punished. Therefore, the less punishment workers have, the more happiness they have. If they enjoy their working life, they work hard and have high job performance. In some companies such as Tesco, there is a 360-degree-feedback. People can receive performance feedback from those multiple angles in the organization such as their boss, colleagues and subordinates. Communication, confidence, work-life balance and anxiety can be improved.

Everyone has different dreams and goals in their heart. In accordance with Locke’s (1968) goal-setting theory, specific aims lead to increase job performance. Absolutely, a goal should be meaningful. So that people have motivation to achieve. SMART (S: Specific, M: Measurable, A: Attainable, R: Realistic, T: Time-related) goals are vital to everyone. The goals can set by own or others. At the personal level, based on their abilities, the junior staff can set aims which being a manager in coming 3 years. At the management level, the managers and their employees work as a team. The managers can set a team target or annual target such as increasing the productivity by 10% in the next six months. When the managers present and explain the targets to the staff, they should use a clear and exact language. They can classify the targets for performance at different levels. That means the managers can use the personal aims from different level of staff to reach that organizational aim. Moreover, allowing the staff to participate in the goal-setting process can increase the acceptability of the goals and the transparency of a firm. It is beneficial to enhance the staff’s the sense of belonging and to boost the morale. On the other hand, for a long-term effect, the managers can monitor the employees’ working process and performance. To conclude, a meaningful goal can motivate people to get a high job performance.

People get the motivation not only from others, but also from themselves. That is self-efficacy. “If you think you can, you can.” is very famous and powerful. When people have a strong belief that they have the ability and can do, they can deal with a lot of difficulties and some challenging tasks. People try their utmost to do the work if they have self-efficacy. Hence, it is easy for those people to get high performance. The process of self-efficacy theory is most likely the expectancy theory. When they have self-efficacy, they expect they can do well. It shows that work motivation increased by ourselves.

Furthermore, workers assume and expect that their inputs are equal to their outcomes. They will make the comparison with others. If there is an equal, they will not take action such as altering the inputs or outcomes. But, they are motivated to act when they are treating in unfair situation. In some cases, the majority of workers persuade their managers to raise their wages.

Job design is another factor to stimulate workers motivation. But Taylor claimed that the job design is for the high ranking workers. Low ranking workers should use financial rewards as an incentive. High ranking should improve the quality of working life to encouraging motivation and high performance. Job designs are four-fold as follow.

Frederick Herzberg (1966, 1968) developed the concept of job enrichment in the 1950s. It is a method for making greater chances for individual success to boost employee job satisfaction and to improve motivation and performance. Removing some controls while holding accountability, giving freedom to workers, increasing personal accountability for work and having the outline of novel and more difficult tasks into the job are some of the examples for job enrichment.

Job enlargement is the horizontal expansion of a job. In fact, doing monotonous jobs and posing fixed body position lead to boredom. To alleviate boredom, the companies can widen the number of tasks performed. For instance, the managers can add a variety of tasks and challenges to an employee's day-to-day routine. The staff can develop a diversity of skills and potential. Becoming more all-round is advantageous to the companies such as raising the productivities of new products increasing the morale.

Job rotation includes systemically moving workers from one job to another job to sustain their motivation and interest. Job rotation is an effective training system as a worker rotated through diverse related jobs acquires different set of job skills. Flexibility increases through transferring workers to news jobs. In the short-term, having news jobs to replace the old jobs provides the fresh environment to workers. They can reduce the boredom and have a new challenging task to handle. However, it is time-consuming and costly when workers need to develop a new skill. And not everyone wants to change their jobs. It may cause dissatisfaction and reduce the productivity.

The positive effects of autonomous work groups (AWG) are long-lasting and multitude. The groups enjoy self-determination in the management of their daily work such as planning the schedule of work and the arranging of rest pauses. The employees can develop independence and discretion. Individuals win the respect of employers benefiting mental health. It can also enhance job fulfillment and organizational commitment, improve performance, increase perceived chances for skill use and reduce absenteeism and turnover.

Skill variety, task identity and work significance which are the main purpose of job design influence on the working meaningfulness and employees engagement. A variety of activities involve different skills and talents of staff. After doing a job, employees can have a visible outcome. Work significance helps to identity the employees’ positions and abilities. Not only it raises the employees’ motivation, the personal growth, job satisfaction, job performance and efficiency but also lower the boredom, absenteeism and turnover.

In conclusion, in the short term, the organizations can mainly use financial rewards as motivators to increase work motivation. More importantly, the influence of using financial rewards is especially for the junior staff. In the long-term, the organizations can non-financial rewards as motivators and pay more attention to the job design in order to increase work stimulation and get high job performance.